


Campaign Promises

by rikyl



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Episode: I'm Leslie Knope, F/M, Ficathon, season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-27
Updated: 2011-09-27
Packaged: 2018-10-17 21:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10603023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rikyl/pseuds/rikyl
Summary: Written for a ficathon prompt: There's something else in the box with the pin that Ben gave to Leslie.Originally posted to LJ.





	

After she left Ben, Leslie spent the afternoon in her office, alternately writing out her campaign speech and jotting notes in the margins of things she wished she could say to him, the things she wanted to do for him, to him, with him.

If only they hadn’t broken up in his office, only a few feet from Chris’s office, where she had to keep her composure and avoid even touching him. If only it wouldn’t be more cruel than anything to write him a letter telling him all the things she felt that no longer mattered, because they had never had a chance to just be in love with each other. If only it weren’t for Chris’s rule, and the rest of the world’s inevitable judgments, and the fact that the job that let him stay near her made him her boss, and that they both loved their jobs so much that she would never ask him to give his up any more than he’d ask that of her.

If only.

Every time Leslie felt like she was going to lose it, she picked up the square box and looked at the button inside to remind herself of why she was doing this. Why it had to be like this. Why she had to focus, why she had to make the most of this, now more than ever, because if she didn’t, then it would all have been for nothing.

She picked up the button and felt the small weight of it in her hand, thoughts about what it meant for her future and what it meant about Ben’s feelings for her mingling together in her head, making it feel like she had a burning hot gumball stuck in the back of her throat, and thought maybe she should take the rest of the afternoon off. She never did that. She hadn’t even done that when she had broken up with Dave, but this was different, this was …

Ben.

Idly turning the pin over in her hand while she thought about the prospect of leaving the office, the eyebrows that would raise, and the implications of what people would wonder and how much that mattered, she noticed a small slip of paper stuck to the back. Distractedly she pulled it out, thinking it was a receipt or some sort of label from whatever shop had made it, but as it unfurled she realized it wasn’t.

It looked like a tiny bumper sticker in patriotic colors, with the words “Knope/Wyatt, later 2012” printed in a strong, tasteful font. At the sight of it, Leslie let out a strangled sound, somewhere between a laugh and a cry, and then covered it in a cough when she noticed Donna giving her a weird look from her desk in the other office.

Her first thought was that it was a reference to one of their mutual fantasies, the one where they were governor and lieutenant governor, or president and vice president, and was struck all over again by how Ben always gave her the higher office. He was always putting her first.

It wasn’t right, what he’d said about how she’d gotten to where she was by herself. It hadn't been because she was sleeping with her boss, but he’d been part of it. She wasn’t sure where she’d be if he hadn’t talked about responsibility over beers when they’d first met, if he hadn’t take a chance on her Harvest Festival proposal, if he hadn’t been there every step of the way helping her make it happen. It had been theirs. Maybe it all still would have happened for her, but it wouldn't have been the same without him.

Then she flipped the strip of paper over, and in his small neat print on the other side was written, This is the other campaign I’m going to be working on for the next six months. If you want. No pressure.

And that’s what when it hit her, what it meant. That life was making her choose, but Ben wasn’t. She could have everything she wanted, just not now, not immediately. He was offering. And she had no idea how that would work, since win or lose, one of them would still be the other one’s boss, but—

They had six months to figure it out. And suddenly she was thinking about what late-night strategy sessions this other campaign might involve.

With renewed energy, she finished her campaign speech in no time, then before the end of the day went to fetch April. April, who probably already knew what was going on, who could keep a secret like no one else in the world, and who most importantly knew how to use programs like Photoshop and Paintshop. Leslie wasn’t even sure which one she needed.

Just before her big announcement speech the next day, Leslie was making her way through her supporters and paused by Ben, extending her hand for a professional handshake. He looked startled by the gesture, and she understood his hesitancy to touch her even in the slightest way, when they wanted so much more, when so many eyes were on her. But he shook her hand anyway, and feeling her love for him threatening to burst out of her chest, she slipped her own tiny campaign bumper sticker into his palm.

Walking away, she didn’t dare look back at Ben reading it. She had to focus and make this count, and if she looked at him she knew she just might lose it.

On one side was printed “Wyatt/Knope, later 2012,” because she wanted him to know that she’d do the same for him if the roles were reversed.

And on the flipside she’d written simply, _I want._


End file.
